The search is on.
With defending champion Swayzee locked in for another tilt at the $250,000 Group 1 Victoria Cup, the drive on recently crowned TAB Eureka winner Bay Of Biscay is up for grabs.
There’s no doubt Cam Hart will continue his long and amazing partnership with Swayzee, especially with a tilt at a third NZ Cup also just around the corner.
Bay Of Biscay has had just three drivers through his 25-start career with the Hart the most prolific with 11 steers.
It might surprise a few that James Herbertson is next with eight drives, including his first six races, for four wins and three seconds.
Mark Pitt, long-time stable driver for trainers Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin, is the other. He’s driven the young star six times for three wins, a second, a third and a fourth.
With Herbertson seemingly out of favour with Stewart and Tonkin, Pitt looks the obvious favourite.
Especially given it was Pitt who landed the drive just two starts back when Hart had commitments at Menangle and Bay Of Biscay ran fourth in a Melton free-for-all.
But the stable is renowned for thinking outside the square.
And it’s clear the strong and very influential ownership group in Bay Of Biscay has a fair say in things.
So, who else could be in the mix?
It’s fascinating to start to cast the net far and wide.
It may also require a lens of how Bay Of Biscay will likely be driven when he takes the ultimate step to face-off with the giants of Australasian pacing – Leap To Fame and Swayzee – for the first time.
While worked to the and led throughout for his two biggest wins – both this year – in the Chariots Of Fire and TAB Eureka, it would be safe to assume a more conservative approach for a “newbie” in the big league in a race like the Victoria Cup.
Even if he did draw to lead and found the front early, it’s highly likely Bay Of Biscay would take a sit on Leap To Fame or Swayzee, whichever got to him first.
Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s how I see it.
The Victoria Cup will be as much a stepping stone, a transitional race into the next and most challenging phase of Bay Of Biscay’s career.
Stewart and Tonkin have been using the talented youngster Ryan Sanderson a lot in recent months, including the TAB Eureka where he did everything right when finishing second on Fox Dan.
Jackie Barker gets lots of drives for them, too.
Kate Gath is another driver they’ve used a lot, most recently on Some American at Melton last Saturday night.
Luke McCarthy has done lots of driving for the barn and would’ve been almost a logical Plan B, but he will have his own horse, Kingman, in the Victoria Cup.
Another top NSW driver Will Rixon is hot property. He would be an option if his old favourite, Max Delight, doesn’t tackle the Cup.
But, back to left field stuff, and there was talk that WA ace Gary Hall Jr, who is without doubt as good a driver as Australia has, was in the mix for the Miki To Success drive.
Could he come from the clouds?
Or even Australia’s all-time most successful driver, Chris Alford. Once a stable regular, it’s been a long time between drinks, but he still boasts the best feature race record of any driver in the land.
Bay Of Biscay will be a great pick-up drive for somebody.
It’s easy to say he needs to go to another level to match it with Leap To Fame and Swayzee, but a look back to the Hunter Cup in February is a reminder how Leap To Fame and Swayzee going toe-to-toe can give the next tier of horses every chance to upset them.
Swayzee led throughout to beat Leap To Fame by a head, but there was only another half-neck away to the luckless Republican Party (third) and the same margin back to Tact McLeod (fourth).
And, if you ask Tonkin and Stewart, they’re adamant Bay Of Biscay is at his absolute best stalking rather than setting the pace.
